MaximumPC 2008 04

Router Issues Dual-Boot OEM Machines

Security Systems Wake on LAN Usage

MAXIMUM

PC

’S

NEXT

MONTH

IN

EXCLUSIVELY

TESTED ON

ANIMALS

MAY ISSUE

LETTERS POLICY: MAXIMUM PC invites your thoughts and comments. Send them to input@

maximumpc.com. Please include your full name, town, and telephone number, and limit your

letter to 300 words. Letters may be edited for space and clarity. Due to the vast amount of e-

mail we receive, we cannot personally respond to each letter.

http://www.maximumpc.com | APR 08 | MAXIMUMPC 95

POE, you’ll need to buy a power injector.

The Toshiba camera has motorized tilt and

swivel, which greatly increases its coverage

area. Here’s my review of that product: http://

tinyurl.com/28g962.

IControl has a wireless system based

on Z-Wave technology, but here again, you

need to plug the cameras into an electrical

socket: http://tinyurl.com/2cu5j7.

We’ll be reviewing more of these types

of products in the future, as well.

WAKE ON LAN? NOPE

When my friend asked me how to securely and

easily access his home computer remotely, it

was one of the only how-tos I couldn’t satis-

factorily answer. Although you covered this

topic in “Use Your Computer from Anywhere”

(February 2008), I have two questions that

weren’t fully addressed in the article.

First, how does the method you described

account for dynamic IP addresses? Would you

have to reconfigure each time a new address

is assigned? Second, how could one configure

and use Wake on LAN with this to turn on the

computer remotely?

—Peter Zunitch

ASSOCIATE EDITOR DAVID MURPHY

RESPONDS: The beauty of Hamachi is that

whenever a PC connects to the Hamachi

network you’ve set up, you’ll see the

machine’s IP address right there in the win-

dow. It might change depending on the spe-

cific way Hamachi doles out IP addresses,

but that’s a moot point. Just type the IP

address in the Hamachi window into your

UltraVNC connection window.

As for Wake on LAN features, you’re

stuck. Hamachi is a software tunnel, and it

doesn’t include a function to wake a sleep-

ing computer. Getting Wake on LAN to work

on even an actual LAN can be kind of hairy.

OEMS HATE THE DUAL BOOT

After reading system reviews in your recent

issues, I noticed that you guys are convinced

that XP performs better than Vista in gaming. I

agree. I have a C2D dual-boot system with XP

and Vista and have benchmarked both and see

the benefits of XP at this time.

Vendors have to notice that you dock

systems that run only Vista. Why don’t more

vendors offer dual-boot systems?

—Bobby Keller

SENIOR EDITOR GORDON MAH UNG RESPONDS:

When Vista first came out and the drivers

were horrible, vendors shipped dual-boot

boxes. As time went on and Vista drivers

still sucked, vendors continued to offer

XP. Recently, we’ve seen a few Vista-only

machines. Why? We’re not sure, but it’s pos-

sible that 1) vendors haven’t been follow-

ing current events, 2) Microsoft’s licensing

requirements force vendors to do this, or 3)

vendors don’t think Vista’s that bad.

Vista performance continues to be pretty

terrible, but we are still open to reviewing

Vista-only boxes. As with all of our system

reviews, we leave the configuration specifics

up to the vendor.

NO PROBLEMS ON OUR END, MA’AM

I am wondering if something could possibly be

wrong with the Luxor 3 game supplied on the

CD that was bundled with the February 2008

issue. ThreatFire has it quarantined because it

was trying to copy itself to other areas of my

drive when I tried to uninstall it.

I had just finished restoring my system, and

you can image my frustration when this hap-

pened. On the bright side, thanks to ThreatFire,

it was caught. But because the files are in the

TF vault, I can’t uninstall the program. Please

tell me how to solve this problem; I’d like to

have all files associated with this program

removed from my system.

—Mrs. Dawson

ASSOCIATE EDITOR DAVID MURPHY

RESPONDS: I’ve installed ThreatFire on my

machine and successfully reinstalled and

uninstalled the Luxor 3 game with no prob-

lems whatsoever. So unfortunately, I’m not

sure what to tell you regarding your situa-

tion! Rest assured, though, that we check

every program we place on the Maximum

PC disc for installation issues and viruses—

multiple times, in fact.

That said, you can delete the program fold-

er from your Program Files directory. It’s not as

good a solution as a routine uninstall process,

but it will free up space on your drive!

THE MOVIE

DOWNLOAD

GUIDE

Everywhere you look, a new

device or service is promising to

download or stream major movie

releases and TV shows directly

to your living room—even in high

def. Next month, we’ll put the big-

gies to the test.

RAID

CHALLENGE

Are the performance returns from

an add-on RAID card worth the

cost? Is a discrete controller card

significantly better than one that’s

host based? Tune in to find out.

SOFTY

AWARDS

We’ll pay homage to the software

applications and utilities that have

captured our hearts this year.

Expect to find some new favorites.

COMING

ANIMALS

MAY ISSUE